Yeah, about that updating the blog thing...

Sorry I've let the blog slide. I haven't been feeling all that great lately and I didn't want to have a bummed-out blog. Not the vibe I'm looking for here.

So anyway, It's mid-December now, which should translate over to mid-June by Northern Hemisphere seasonal conversions. However, it has not been very hot over here yet. Oh, a day here and there, but that's about it and not for awhile. The sun is very strong but the winds have been mostly southerlies which are fairly chilly most of the time... about upper 60s to low 70s for highs.

It actually snowed in the mountains in late November. And we had a nice rain storm about a week ago that was very unusual. It was an all-day sort of rain and the weather systems don't often have that sort of stamina in these parts. Passing showers are the norm. Bottom line it was the most rain in Melbourne from one storm in three years, but fairly unremarkable by New York standards.

So anyway, now you have the weather report, lol. I'll write something more substantive next time.

Palin, as we all know, did a pretty good job. Good enough to give McCain the lead in the national polls this week. 'Nuff said.

I've been meaning to post my August 26 ski trip to Mt. Buller. Expect that posting in the next day or two...

In the meantime, I'll toss up here my first video for my blog. I took this video clip this afternoon at Churchill National Park, 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from where I live, in Black Rock. Now that I've been there, I'd have to say it's probably the closest park with wildlife that you can reliably see up close.

I promised one of my readers a blog entry about Senator Barack Obama and here it is: It's going to be probably less interesting than my other one about Governor Sarah Palin because, well, Obama has been in the news a lot over the past year or two so there is less insight I can bring to the table.

Obama has run a successful primary campaign running on sheer charisma and capitalizing on the national discontent with Republican George Bush. Within the Democratic Party, however, supporters of the failed campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton were left with bad tastes in their mouths after a protracted primary season that ended in a virtual stalemate between Clinton and Obama. The impasse was essentially was unilaterally settled by Democratic Party leaders in favor of Obama. To be fair, Obama did have a slight edge over Clinton on delegates going into the stalemate, but hardly a convincing mandate.

Many disgruntled Clinton supporters, especially women, feel that the Democratic Party is taking their support for granted. [Google "PUMA" and "Clinton"]. This situation was not helped when Obama failed to even make a gesture of considering Clinton for the vice president position.

Obama's choice of longtime Senator Joseph Biden for Vice President was very much a political act of playing it safe.

Strategically, it allowed John McCain to do what he likes to do - act like a gutsy party rebel or a "maverick" by nominating Palin, a Governor who was elected on a platform of reform and has by all accounts delivered. In one master political stroke, McCain simultaneously builds his case that he is serious about working towards reforming the Republican Party and American politics and at the same time validating the feelings of disenfranchised Clinton supporters who, again, felt that women's support was being taken for granted by Obama and the Democratic Party, letting them know that he considers them equal partners in leadership. Oh, and he also energized the conservative base of his party.

A cynic would interpret McCain's move as blatant pandering. However, it is the Democratic Party and Obama themselves who created the opportunity for McCain to pander by the way they mismanaged the Clinton situation.

I can't overstate the significance of a Presidential candidate putting a woman on the ticket. It is important to remember that for all the talk of equal rights in America, no woman has ever served as a President or Vice President there, and this fact is not lost on American women. The one and only time a US Presidential candidate had a female running mate was in 1984 when Walter Mondale ran with Geraldine Ferraro and lost to incumbent President Reagan. I did not vote in that election: I was only 14 years old. Many voters today are too young to remember this election at all.

While Barack Obama would be the first Black president, and that is truly exciting, it is also historic for a woman to attain the position of Vice President. So in terms of novelty to the American voter, Obama and Palin might cancel each other out. That remains to be seen.

What's been said about Obama that hasn't already been said? He's the antithesis of Bush. If Obama delivers on half the promises he's made, he will be colossally popular. But in order to do this, he has to get elected.

Getting elected as President these days means being able to carry crucial "swing" states that can go either Democrat or Republican. My state of New York is going to vote for him. But the swing states: Can he win them? Can McCain win them? That is the million dolar question.

There is a lot of campaigning left to go, and a lot of things can happen between now and November.

Which brings us back to Palin, the wildcard. Her speech at the Republican Convention tonight in Minneapolis will be watched closely by all Americans, but how well it is received, especially by the voters in those swing states, is sure to be crucial.

How crucial? Like The West Wing during ratings "sweeps" week crucial.

Musings on Sarah Palin, VP candidate for the Republican Party:

From over here in Australia, I have been following the American election season with some interest.

I am particularly intrigued by the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate.

I overheard a radio personality here in Melbourne talking about Palin - in particular her views on abortion and the fact that she is a hunter ("There is a picture in the paper of her standing over the carcass of what appears to be Bambi's mother!" was the direct quote) with absolutely no comprehension of how such a person can be nominated for such an important position.

We're talking about an American election. Were you expecting Shimon Peres? Seriously, I understand the worry, but I think it would be worthwhile to take a moment to put some perspective into this VP choice.

To understand Palin, you have to understand Alaska, a frontier state but no less part of the Union than the 49 other states. Alaskans, more or less, are a rougher, tougher version of Midwestern people. Many Alaskans are in fact former Midwesterners and not surprisingly, Palin's family is from Idaho. She went to college there.

Does Palin hunt? Yes. And hunting seems bloodthirsty and cruel and is tough to comprehend. But before you go ballistic, consider that hunting is part of the Alaskan heritage and that the animals that Palin hunts are used for food, not merely sport. Do you eat meat? If you do, then your meat is processed through mass production methods. The animals that gave you your meat had a hellish life compared to a wild Alaskan moose or Caribou. But your slaughterhouse, hidden away, allows the "dirty work" to go on behind closed doors where you can't be bothered by it. Give Palin credit - she may eat meat, but she has the "kahones" to go out and kill it and prepare it herself.

Is Palin anti-abortion? Yes. But that question is less important than this one: Have her views on abortion manifest itself to date in her governing? Not that I've heard. It's important to draw a distinction between one's personal beliefs and the way they act in positions of responsibility.

Lets also take a moment to examine how abortion rights are managed in the United States.

Does any President have the unilateral authority to decide abortion law? No, but the President can, when a vacancy arises, appoint a Supreme Court Justice who potentially can tip a balance in a decision on the issue. However, a Supreme Court Justice appointment must be ratified by Congress. And Congress is made up of representatives who are elected independently of the President.

Put another way: There have been many presidents whose personal views are pro-choice and many who have been anti-abortion, and none of them have really influenced this issue all that much over the years.

John McCain's policy statement says he favors making abortion law a matter for the individual states instead of a federal issue. Basically, this position allows him to ride both sides of the issue. He can turn to the pro-choice people and say that he is not for outlawing abortion, just shifting the responsibility for the decision to the individual states, and he can go to the anti-abortion camp and say he's for overturning the (national) Supreme Court decision, essentially telling both sides more or less what they want to hear.

From his perspective, it's probably a good tactical move. It's a way to sidestep the issue, anyhow. For people who depend on the stance on this issue for deciding who to vote for, it's a bit of a cop out.

Barack Obama's policy is, of course, staunchly pro-choice, but we can't look upon a governing track record or even a lengthy voting record to say what he would do in a position of power. This is not a criticism, but simply an observation.

I've digressed, but getting back to Palin, her accomplishments as Governor of Alaska have included bipartisanship, cleaning out political corruption and squeezing more money out of the pockets of the oil companies that are using Alaska's resources and putting that money into the pockets of Alaskans. The people of her state aren't complaining. She has an 80 percent approval rating there, which is a remarkable statistic. It also means a lot of pro-choice Democrats in Alaska approve of her. So unless she does a Jekyll and Hyde if she became president, there is no reason to believe she cares about using her office to promote an abortion agenda.

This is not an advertisement for Sarah Palin, and I am not telling you whom I am voting for or whom you should vote for. However, Palin's narrative is undeniably compelling. Her bona fide credentials both as an effective Governor and as a member of the real world are a stark contrast to the power-craving, mutant political creatures that we Americans are usually forced to choose from in a Presidental election.

So, what I'm really trying to say here is that Palin is a legitimate candidate for the office and not a reason to panic, no matter who you intend to vote for. Melbournians, take deep breaths!

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
A KANGAROO has inflicted extensive injuries on a man in Melbourne's north-west.
The victim, aged in his 50s, suffered a large gash to the head and other wounds to the chest and hands in the incident, which happened at 1.30pm.
Ambulance officers treated him at the scene, in Enterprise Drive, Sunbury.
He was transferred to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a stable condition.
Ambulance Victoria paramedic Stephen Weissbacher said the man was not seriously injured in the attack.
"He was jogging near his home when he was attacked by a male kangaroo. He managed to fight the kangaroo off and made his way to a neighbours house who called 000,"Mr
Weissbacher said.

So, What else have I been up to since early August? I went on an overnight camping trip to Wilsons Promontory from August 2-4. Wilsons Prom is about 200 kilometers southeast of Melbourne and is the furthest southern point on the Australian mainland. Tasmania has the most southerly point in Australia's states, a point a bit over 43 degrees south latitude, or the American equivalent latitude of Manchester, New Hampshire. Now, Wilsons Prom protrudes just beyond 39 degrees south latitude, an American equivalent latitude of, say, Cape May, New Jersey. Wilsons Prom, however, resembles Cape May not at all and Acadia National Park in Maine quite a lot. Actually, I'll be honest - it is even more beautiful than Acadia. Oh, and at the Prom, I've finally gotten up close and personal with some Australian wildlife for the first time since I've moved here, which explains the opening graphic for today's blog entry. We'll get to the actual wildlife in a moment.

First, however, I'd like to show you some of the spectacular scenery.



Ooooh!



Aaaaah!



Oooh la la!

Remarkably enough, I had the entire park practically all to myself. Never mind that the temperature outside was over 50 degrees Fahrenheit and the sun was brilliant and warm.

This is still the dead of winter, like early February in the Northern Hemisphere, and Australians avoid the Prom this time of year. They say it's too windy and too changeable, too showery and too chilly. In the summer, you have to book campsites in advance on the weekends, and the beaches are crowded with people. I was happy to have the opportunity to experience this magical place in relative solitude.

Moving right along to the wildlife, I was approached by a portly Wombat on the first night and I stumbled upon what appeared to be a baby Wombat on my last day. Isn't it just the cutest?
Also on the last day, at a grassy clearing near the Visitors Center, I spotted a couple of Kangaroos grazing about. They like to graze in grassy areas, and I've noticed that the Australian parks tend to supply these areas close to some parking lots and picnic spots as more or less designated Kangaroo viewing areas, whether intentionally or not. No question, it's great for the tourist shutterbugs!

All in all, Wilsons Prom is a great place, and one I'll want to come back to again and again, in all seasons.

I'll certainly be keen on planning another trip into the Aussie bush soon.

P.S. Today's blog looks a little dodgy in Firefox and better in Windows Explorer today. Don't know why that is, but it happens. That Blogger doesn't format very well when you use a lot of pictures is a simple answer.

Okay, I took 18 days off from the blog. So sue me. What did you miss? Well, for one thing, there was snow in the Dandenongs back on August 10. The Dandenongs are a hilly range less than an hour's drive east from Melbourne. They rise to a height of about 2,000 feet at the ridgeline, which ain't too shabby, sort of like a taller version of Harriman State Park in relation to New York City. Snow in the Dandenongs happen about once or twice a year. It might happen again this week, according to the forecasts. Or, it might not.
Melbournians flock to the Dandenongs after a snow and, well, take a lot of pictures. It's a lot closer than driving to the Victorian Alps and the snow on the trees looks just as nice. It also gives people a reason to get a nice Devonshire tea at one of the many lovely teahouses and restaurants in the Dandenongs, like Miss Marples, pictured here. Miss Marples, as I recall, has Christmas decorations up at this time of the year, even though Christmas is not for another few months. Why? I guess it's just that the snow and chill is just so much more "Christmassy" than the summer heat, isn't it? Ah, the British roots of Australia still show, don't they?

Been a bit busy. I'll update the blog in a couple of days. I am going for a walkabout. More on that later. In the meantime, this is a good opportunity for you to drop me an email or a comment and let me know you're reading my blog.

I would like to announce the first subscriber to this blog. She is a twenty-something, married gal from the Lower East Side named Mel.

Hi Mel!

Cool that my first subscriber would have the same name as my new city's name for short as well as Tullamarine Airport (MEL).

In all seriousness, however, I would like to take a moment to remember that had he not died in February, my father would have celebrated his 82nd birthday today. I hope wherever he is, he is happy.

Living in Australia now, it sometimes feels like I've moved to a different planet, similar to Earth, but not the same planet. That may sound like a strange thing to say, but look at it this way: In terms of nature, I have no landmarks to grasp. The plants look different. The night sky looks very different. No big dipper to look for up there anymore. Instead there is the Southern Cross, which as you might have noticed, appears on the Australian flag. Can you find it in the picture above?

The Southern Cross, I've learned, is the smallest of the 88 modern constellations, but easy as pie to find in the night sky, because of the two bright pointer stars that bring your gaze right towards it. In the picture to the left, I've circled the pointer stars in green, and the Southern Cross (or rather, the Crux) in red.

Australia is great for stargazing, too. Even here in suburban Melbourne, light pollution is far less than suburban areas in the United States. The darkest sky I've found so far is in remote parts of Tasmania. It's Star Wars starry out there.

Real Estate is a hot topic here, as it is in many places in the world. Frankly, I don't really see what the big deal is - Australia is a huge country and if you're willing to live a New York City sized commute from Melbourne, you should be able to find something affordable. Understandably, people are reluctant to do so and rather do enjoy living close to the city with all the community and amenities that come with it.

Most of the properties here are sold by auction method. You can see the houses on the market as you drive past them since they have huge billboards in their front yards, as you see above.

The auction mentioned on this sign was one Ilana and I actually attended - we happened to be in the neighborhood at the time and we were curious to see the auction in action. The property, which was an estate sale following the death of the owner, was a three-bedroom, one bathroom unrenovated unit (in desperate need of a complete makeover) with a small garage and no other land. It was a unit in small row of joined units, a common cost-saving layout you see in Melbourne's suburbs. It sold for AUD $465,000, which was considered a very good deal. (FYI, 1 AUD = approximately 0.95 USD)

If you want to talk about the other extreme, it is possible to find blocks of undeveloped land of varying sizes listed in deep rural Victoria for about $15,000. And we're talking about land with access to local utilities. Can anyone say, "summer home?"

This just in on ABC news website here tonight. Carrum is, oh, about 10 kilometers south of here as the crow flies.

Shark school spotted off Melbourne beach

Police say a large school of sharks has been spotted about 100 metres off the beach at Carrum, in Melbourne's south.

The sharks are chasing salmon and were reported by Air Traffic Control. [!!!-Ed.]

Police says the sharks are not considered a threat at this stage.

Water Police and the Police Air Wing are on their way to monitor the situation.

Must be some pretty damn big sharks in order to be spotted easily from the air like that. I'm guessing any plans for a late night skinny dip is off the agenda. Hell, I'm not answering any knocks on the door tonight, either.

Today, Ilana had a long-overdue lunch alone with her sister and I had a long overdue walk in the woods. I decided to go somewhere convenient to get to, so I chose Arthur's Seat, which is on the Mornington Peninsula, about 50 kilometers SSE of where we are staying in Black Rock. Arthur's Seat is the tallest hill in the area and offers fabulous views of Port Phillip Bay, north towards Melbourne as well as south in the general direction of the Bass Strait. It is the picture of the southern view that I open this blog with today.

Arthur's Seat has a chairlift to take you to the top, but for whatever reason it is temporarily closed. I'm sure they'll get it all sorted out in time for the busy summer season. But never mind all that as I came for the walk, not to ride, so I took the Two Bays track, towards the summit.

At the summit, there is a lovely restaurant with a million dollar view. The meals are very reasonably priced there, but they are just as happy to let you just buy a pot of tea and gaze out at the view to the north that the restaurant offers. These lovebirds are doing just that.




And here is the unobstructed view. Nice, huh?



A pot of afternoon tea will only set you back three dollars fifty. Now, what you do then is buy a couple of fresh scones with jam and cream to keep that tea company for another six dollars. The combination is called a "Devonshire Tea" which I assure you is worth every penny.

The truth is, you don't even have to use the restaurant at all, since Arthur's Seat is a state park here and they have ample, free picnic grounds available complete with barbecue stations. The public barbecues are, curiously, electric-heated, coin-operated devices which might sound peculiar given that electric is not ideal for tasty cooking. However, it does make sense when you consider the very considerable danger of bushfires in Australia, especially in summer months. The risk of an outbreak of fire from embers would be just too great.

All in all, it was a good day. Melbourne is that you are close to nice places to visit such close by, pretty much regardless of what direction away from the city you choose to pick. There is an abundance of lovely walks and day trips to experience.

I'm blogging from St. Kilda Library today. The free wifi available in this library is the slowest I've used since I visited an Internet cafe in Sanliurfa, Turkey nine years ago. That place refunded my money because the dial-up they were using was so slow that Yahoo mail hadn't finished loading up my Inbox after 30 minutes of watching it trickle in, byte by byte. But I digress.

Back here in St. Kilda, I turned off the laptop's built-in wifi and instead plugged in my 3G wireless broadband adapter Ilana and I got for free for signing up for a $69 cellphone plan at the "3" cellphone company. It's working very well, indeed.

Anyway, earlier today, a Qantas 747 aircraft flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne had to make an emergency landing in Manila after a sudden decompression occurred mid-flight. Here's a quote from a passenger taken from one of the articles about the incident:

"Speaking from the Manila airport, Melbourne woman Dr June Kane says she heard a loud bang from underneath the plane, and saw debris fly through the cabin.

'I'm looking at the plane now and on the left hand side, just forward of the wing, there's a gaping hole from the wing to the underbody,' she said.

'It's about two metres by four metres and there's baggage hanging out so you assume that there's a few bags that may have gone missing.'"

I know these things happen, but I'm glad the plane landed safely and I am just hoping nothing like this happens on the flight when our cats are airlifted to Australia three months from now. They put them in the cargo bays, too. Imagine the horror!

No picture today. Sorry!
Australian police set up roadblocks very often around the city to find drunk drivers. At the stops, each driver is asked to blow into a breathalyser. So, today was my turn. I passed. Yay!

So, I took the Connex commuter train from Sandringham into Melbourne tonight. Boy, are they punctual! The station at Sandringham is the terminal for that line and only has one platform, and they turn those trains around fast! Unlike the Long Island Rail Road or the NYC subway, there are no signals at the end of the line to gradually slow the train into the station. Instead, the train pulls into the station as quickly as it would in any station along its route. Then, there is a digital clock on the platform, and sure enough, the train reverses direction and leaves on the minute, no ifs, ands or buts.

The public transportation system here is split into two zones - the city and the suburbs - and if you life in the 'burbs, it doesn't matter if you live five miles away or twenty miles away, the price is the same. And it's all relatively cheap. your train ticket is good on commuter trains, trams and buses for the duration that it's valid.

I was going into the city to go to the weekly meeting of the Melbourne Bushwalkers Club. It was interesting, but the long and the short of it is that they specialize in day walks and they sensed I usually go for overnight trips, so they recommended another club. more about that later.

P.S. The radio program I mentioned yesterday is only hosted by high school girls for half the week - the other half of the week is hosted by high school boys. Brilliant idea! However, all they seemed to want to do is talk about sports, which was actually predictable and boring. Oh well. Can't win them all.

Ilana and I have found ourselves in the car quite often around 5 p.m. and as we putter about in the very mild Melbourne traffic, we surf around the radio stations. There are a lot of stations in Melbourne that identify themselves by "triples" - Triple R, or Triple J, Triple M and so on. They're not bad, but what has really caught my attention is on another station - SYN. It's an hour-long music and talk show called "Objection" that apparently is being hosted by a group of high school girls. Believe it or not, it is actually a lot of fun to listen to. Yes, it's sophomoric, but that's the point. Today, I got on the Internet and tracked down the story behind this station. SYN stands for the Student Youth Network. The Student Youth Network broadcasts radio programming with powerful transmitters that cover some of Australia's largest markets. They also have an Internet presence and deliver television programming. It's impressive, inspiring and entertaining. Nothing like it exists in the United States, to my knowledge, and that's a shame. It has become one of my SYN-ful pleasures here.

Melbourne is a city on the Yarra River, and next to Port Phillip Bay. Some of the nicest suburbs are along the beach that runs southeast from the city towards Frankston, the town on the far end of the bay and on the way to the Hamptonesque villages along the Mornington Peninsula, where the bay meets the ocean. My mother-in-law is blessed to live three houses away from the beach in Black Rock, one of those southeastern suburbs, about halfway between Melbourne and Frankston. Two minutes from her door, I can enjoy views such as the one above, that of Red Bluff.

Walking between the towns along these beaches, you often have the option of walking along a sea wall that appears from time to time. Today, there was a strong sothwest wind from a departing storm passing just south of Tasmania. Out in the Bass Strait between Victoria and Tassie, winds from this storm have created waves up to an incredible seven meters tall (that's 23 feet!). The waves are comparatively big here in the bay, too. The waves are crashing into the sea wall and throwing up bursts of spray.

Tomorrow, things are supposed to calm down and the bay will return to glassy smoothness, with clear waters.

I've been living in Australia for two weeks and besides looking for work and getting registered with medical insurance, a bank account and the like, I've been trying to work out exactly how hiking is going to figure in to my new life. I am not a newcomer to Australian hiking (bushwalking, as it is called here). On my past two visits to Australia, I have gone on three major bushwalks. I completed a successful winter traverse of the Overland Track in July, 2005 (see picture). I attempted a traverse of the Overland Track in August, 2007, but had my plans derailed by a three-day snowstorm on Cradle Plateau - I spent those days either waiting it out or slogging through waist-deep snowdrifts probing ahead on the track, only to turn around when the risk arose of running out of daylight. I followed the unsuccessful 2007 Overland Track hike with a successful hike to the Tulane Hut at the base of Frenchman's Cap (followed by another three days stranded at the Vera Hut waiting out one of the worst rainstorms in Tasmania in decades.) Bottom line, I am confident that I can handle myself out in the bush with due preparation and have the experience to lead a group as well. Be that as it may I am thinking about joining a bushwalking club, the Melbourne Bushwalkers. It should be a good way to get to know some people I might eventually go on hikes with. They require you to join them on three hikes before they extend membership to you, probably just to be sure you are not some weirdo. Now, while most of their hikes are very, very easy, they do have a few expert level (read, winter backcountry) hikes as well. Still in some way, I can't help but feel like it's a step back twenty years to a time when I depended upon the Explorer Post One outing club to help me go on the hikes I wanted to go on.

Short post today. It deserves elaboration, but I'm just going to put out there that I've found Australians to be friendly beyond explanation and generally happy people. One anecdote: On the same trip to Brighton that got me those car pics from my earlier post, I witnessed two girls in their early teens skipping gleefully down the sidewalk. Not a skip here and there but unrelenting, long-distance skipping from the moment I glimpsed them out of the side window of the car to the moment they disappeared from view behind me - a good twenty seconds, with no end in sight. Clearly, Skippy is not just a bush kangaroo. I'd have taken video footage had I not been driving. I haven't seen such a blatant gesture of childhood innocence since I bought a glass of lemonade from a group of children on Nantucket in the summer of 2005.

The car culture of America is well known, but what many people might not be aware of is that Australia has quite a car culture of its own. Perhaps it should not be so surprising, given the sheer size of the country. There are a number of types of cars that are native to Australia, like the Holden, and major international manufacturers have often produced specialized automobiles for the Australian market, an example of which I will get to in a moment. Now, outside of the metropolitan areas, a vehicle is a must. For the sake of versatility and utility, many families own a pickup or SUV ("ute") such as the one you see above. That black snorkel attachment you see is quite functional. It prevents the engine intake from being smothered by water if the truck is forced to ford a deep stream.

There are, of course, Australian vehicles that were never intended to come anywhere near the mud. While walking through Melbourne's bayside neighborhood of Brighton, I had the pleasure of running across an exciting rare car of the Musclecar era, a 1972 Chrysler Valiant Challenger R/T 265cid Hemi Six Pack, which appears to your left. The history of this limited edition performance car goes beyond the scope of this blog and is readily available on Google. However, suffice it to say that it is very different, say, from the American musclecars Chrysler was producing at the same time across the Pacific.
First of all, the engine is a high-compression six-cylinder, with specially tuned six-barrel carburetors. The body is smaller and lighter than the American Dodge Challenger - in this way it is way more Valiant than Challenger. Mated to a four-speed manual transmission, with a racing suspension that loved to be tossed into corners, this car was arguably the fastest car on Australian roads in its day. While I generally don't pay much attention to cars these days, to see a car like this used as a daily driver was pretty exciting.

Much will eventually be said here about the streetcars - sorry, trams - of Melbourne. However, for the time being, I have only a few minutes to jot down a short homage to the nicest trams of the bunch. Namely, the classic trams that have been assigned to the Chapel Street line through the Pahran neighborhood.

These old trams were the kind of trams my wife Ilana would take when she was a child. There have been at least two generations of trams that have overtaken these models since then. However, given the choice, I would take this sort of tram every time. It rattles down the track and the faded green and yellow takes me on a ride - to another place in time.

First things first:
Lets get the Vegemite out of the way, shall we?

Vegemite is yeast spread. It looks like Nutella or some other yummy chocolate spread, however, I assure you that there is nothing sweet about this substance. It has an overpowering sharp, bitter taste that demands respect in terms of how you consume this concoction. That is not to say that it is without its merits. According to the label, it is one of the best sources of B vitamins of any food on the planet. I'll have to take their word for it.

How not to eat Vegemite

What is wrong with this picture, you ask? Vegemite, is, indeed, spread on toast. So that seems right. However, I have spread it too thick on the bread. It should be hardly visible, like the way snowflakes settle faintly on the lawn after a snow flurry. Chomping into a dense layer of yeast gook such as the one shown here was ill advised. My verdict was swift and unequivocal.

"It tastes like poo."

I'll try again tomorrow with a third of the dollop and an underlying shmere of butter. From what I understand, with the proper tweaking, it can eventually be palatable.

Welcome to my blog about life in Australia from the perspective of me. And who am I? Well, if you don't know me already, there is a little bit about me on the side of the page.

What I hope to do here is get to talk a little about the people, places and things that make this neck of the woods what it is. Actually, to call it a "neck of the woods" at all would be misleading. Australia is more like the toe of the woods... Albeit a big toe. The big toe of the woods.

Sorry about the unimaginative name for the Blog. Maybe we'll do something about that later.